Saturday, October 24, 2009

Eerie Glow In The Dark additions to your Miniature Haunted Mansion!

It was the middle of October and I was taking a break from making minis to clean my studio. I was also mulling over ideas for my next line of spooky miniatures. While sorting through my paint box removing empty and dried bottles, I came across a long forgotten bottle of glow in the dark paint. Ah-ha! Such a simple thing but I realized I hadn’t ever made any glow-in-the-dark items before. I ran out and bought some fresh glowing paint and came home to search for something to test it on.

The previous night, my brother who is also an artist took all the paint with him to the game shop. We often host ‘paint nights’ but somewhere along the way we failed to communicate the paint schedule. I was left at home with an old basket of folk acrylics and a few bottles of Citadel acrylics. The gothic style furniture I had made was supposed to be dark black and purple in my mind’s eye but I was left with pale greens, silver, and grays. Oh well, I just used those… and this made the perfect base for the glow in the dark idea. I dry brushed a heavy layer all over each piece and in the daylight, it gave it a ghostly chalky look that I liked. Then with the lights out, it was so cool- glowing and showing the crackle texture underneath. I was very pleased! I then took a skeleton closet I made and painted spider webs on it and made glowing drips on the skeleton inside. Wow, the piece was just that much more interesting. I then worked on photographing. I think I was only partially successful because my camera didn’t fully capture the glowing effect in the dark. Anyway, these will be available in my Etsy shop this weekend! I began checking out other glow in the dark ideas for dollhouses and found several artisan examples. From Etsy’s TeamMIDS we have several cute things in clay:

I also found a Victorian Dollhouse (sold in 2007 by Laurel Auction) that has glow in the dark trimming. For an even more spooky effect, on the home’s siding you could do a light colored crackle over top of black then fully paint the exterior with glow in the dark glaze. These type of paints tend to be translucent and will show the hue and texture below it. Other ideas for adding a bit of glow to spooky accessories:

1) Use glow in the dark printed fabrics on your miniature bedding, drapes, or upholstery!Here are a few links:- Star patternhttp://www.promwishescatalog.com/prom/GlowintheDark-Gossamer.cfm- Fairy Frost patternhttp://www.annsfabricsandcrafts.com/cgi-bin/Store/store.cgi?product=Fairyf&productid=CG0376_Glow&tracking5=froogle- Glow in the dark fabric sprayhttp://www.lynchs.com/item--GlowInTheDarkFabricSpray--4568.html

2) Paint glow in the dark spider webs in the corners of your rooms or on table and counter tops! 3) Paint little skeletons with glowing paint and stick them in closets, under tables, or hanging from the rafters! Here is an example of one of those little Dollar Store skeletons turned into a creepy glowing Bridal doll. This was done by Leslie Sheperd. This life sized skull display by Martha Steward could be easily translated into miniature. I really like how there are 3 distinct colors of bones: white, green, and black. With a thin layer of glowing acrylic, a little pile of bones would look outstandingly creepy on a buffet or dinner table or even tucked under a bed in your dollhouse.4) Splash some glow in the dark paint on spooky plants, pots of soup, or on mirror surfaces! These ravenous Venus Flytraps are by Kate Lansing of Solet Luna. Below are life sized glow in the dark cake plates that could easily be copied in miniature scale. Just glaze white dishes! I also found glow in the dark tarot cards! You could print tiny black and white tarot cards and then glaze them with glow in the dark paint and some sparkles. My first glow in the dark work: When I was little, I loved to write my name on everything… walls, bedspreads, my mom’s dog. I especially loved red lipstick. You can imagine the trouble I got into! Well, then I wised up and started using glow in the dark paint and lip gloss. I would go into my closet with a flashlight and doodle for hours. This continued until my dad decided to change the doors and add shelving in the closets. He could clearly see the texture of my work. After being severely reprimanded, I ended my graffiti days and moved onto other mediums.

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